Winning Home Brew Reaches a Larger Audience at Mickey Finn's Brewery

Karl Hagglund's Quigley's Pale Ale won the Besley's Homebrew Competition held at last year's Wine, Beer, Cigar, and Food Festival benefiting the Save Brainerd organization. The Ale will be featured at an event Wed., April 17 from 6-9 p.m. in the Amber Roo

The Besley's Home Brew Contest was created to shine a spotlight on the efforts of the Save Brainerd Project and help spread the word about better beers throughout Lake County. The 2nd annual competition was held during the Northshore Wine, Beer, Cigar and Food Festival last summer. Now the winning beer is being brewed on a larger scale so it can be enjoyed by a wider audience at the Best of the Fest Event to be held on Wed. April 17th at Mickey Finn's in Libertyville. Karl Hagglund, the winner of the 2012 Best of Fest Home Brew Competition, has been brewing his winning recipe, Quigley's Pale Ale, at Mickey Finn's, with the help of brewmaster Greg Brown, using hops grown by Hagglund himself. “I’d never brewed a vat of beer this big,” he …

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Spring Cleaning at Brainerd Saturday

Volunteers sought to help spruce up the Brainerd Building for summer events.

Many hands make light work, therefore the Save Brainerd group is holding a Spring Cleaning day Saturday, May 12. The event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon at the Brainerd Building, located at 416 W. Park Ave. Help clean out the winter cobwebs as the grounds are prepared for summer events. Brainerd Community Center, Inc. is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization looking to save the historic building from demolition and repurpose it into a community center for the arts and education. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites. The structure is sound, however, funds are required for the restoration. Walk the halls, sweep the floors and visualize what a gem this building could be for the community. A little elbow …

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Home Brewers Dream Come True

David Reuter's Lap Dog Robust Porter won Best in Show at the Besley's Homebrew Competition. Now his recipe is brewing at Mickey Finn's Brewery in Libertyville and will be featured at an event supporting the Save Brainerd Foundation on April 25.

It’s a home brewer’s dream come true to have your recipe brewed by a master brewer at a successful microbrewery, and that is what happened to home brewer David Reuter. His Lap Dog Robust Porter was named Best in Show at the first annual Besley’s Homebrew contest held during Brainerd’s Wine, Beer, Cigar and Food Festival last August. The production batch of Reuter’s “Best of the Fest” beer will be available for purchase at Mickey Finn's Brewery and Pub. A biologist, Reuter found himself in the unique position of having some free time at work. Since he likes to know how things work he began researching the process in which yeast turns sugar into carbondioxide and ethanol, also known as the art of brewing beer.   “Being able to brew on a …

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District 128 Officials Vote to Extend Brainerd Lease

Faced with fundraising challenges, Brainerd Community Center, Inc. asks for an extension on lease payment.

High School District 128 school board voted unanimously to adjust the lease for a group trying to convert the Brainerd high school building into a community center at Monday's board meeting. According to the current lease agreement, Brainerd Community Center, Inc., the group trying to turn the building into a community center, is supposed to make a balloon payment of $250,000 this year. After the school board’s vote, that payment has been pushed back to 2014. Members of the group cite fundraising troubles as the reason for delaying the balloon payment. Currently, the school district owns the building and has leased it to the village, who in turn sub-leased it to the group trying to save the building. Brainerd Community Center President Jim…

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Joyce Lee

8:11 am on Saturday, March 5, 2011

Anyone interested in learning more about the efforts to save Brainerd can check out the Web site at www.savebrainerd.org. There you can download the group's monthly newsletter and see what you can do to help preserve this community treasure.   more ›

Brainerd Supporters Hosts Open House

Save Brainerd members hopes the event will raise awareness and appreciation for the Brainerd property.

Supporters of the Brainerd property are working hard to raise awareness and appreciation in an effort to preserve the former high school building. On Friday, the Brainerd Community Center Inc. is hosting an open house to talk about the future of Brainerd. Members of the Save Brainerd organization will also be on hand to answer questions and discuss the value of preserving the Brainerd property, located on Route 176 and Brainerd Avenue. “We hope to make more people aware of what’s going with the Save Brainerd Group, and how we are moving forward with our goal of making a community center a reality,” said Jill Harkaway, a member of the Brainerd Community Center board. The Brainerd property belongs to Community High School District 128. In …

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Standing The Test of Time

A history of the Brainerd Building.

Prior to 1916, students from around Lake County crammed into the classrooms of Central School. To alleviate the space issue, construction began on central Lake County's first high school, the eight-classroom Brainerd Building. Located on Brainerd Avenue, both the street and the structure bore the middle name of local builder Ansel B. Cook. When it opened the following year, 138 students and seven teachers filled its hallways. With the population continuing to grow in the 1920s, the Jackson Gym, featuring a stage and elevated track, was added onto the existing structure. As Sandy Wilson recollected, "I will always remember what we called the 'tunnel,' which of course, was not underground but connected the two buildings together." John …

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Chi-an Chang

2:12 pm on Monday, December 20, 2010

Sue, Thank you for sharing your memory. It's so fun to read about your expereince, especially how you had to type with gloves on.   more ›

Voice of Libertyville High School Students

Opinion: Tear Down the Brainerd Building

Libertyville High School student offers his take on Brainerd.

Seriously, Brainerd has got to go. Before Vernon Hills High School was built, all freshmen in the district had classes at Brainerd unless they were enrolled in upper level classes at the Butler Lake Campus. However, once VHHS was built in 1999, there wasn't a need to use Brainerd anymore. The building has sat dormant since. A local group, called Brainerd Community Center, has sub-leased the old building from the Village of Libertyville, which is currently leasing the building from District 128 with the intent to rehabilitate it into a community center. The proposed community center would focus on educational enrichment, but would also provide music programs and a teen center. However, the group has fallen way short in its quest to raise …

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UPDATE: Brainerd Supporters Working Hard to Save Historic Site

Voters can help group win $50,000 grant by voting for Brainerd project on Pepsi's website: www.refresheverything.com, until Dec. 31.

Although the group trying to preserve Libertyville's historic Brainerd Building and Jackson Gymnasium has faced some difficult times lately, the group is far from being out of ideas, their leader says. John Snow, president of Brainerd Community Center Inc., remains optimistic about his organization's chances of restoring the buildings, located at Route 176 and Brainerd Avenue.   Despite asking the Libertyville village board for a three-year extension on its initial $250,000 lease payment, which is due July 2, 2011, Snow told Libertyville Patch he truly believes something can be worked out that benefits everyone involved. The organization signed the 50-year lease in 2006, although according to its terms, the entire balance would be paid off…

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